Khojali tragedy mustn’t recur

On February 25, 2011, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of the Khojali tragedy a conference and commemorative meeting devoted to this sorrowful date took place in Moscow's President Hotel. It was held by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation branch in Russia, the Youth Forum, the Azerbaijani Youth organization of Russia and the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia.  Over 600 guests assembled at the events. The Ambassadors of Turkey and Paraguay to Russia, members of diplomatic missions and representatives of the Russian Foreign Office, the Russian intelligentsia, the Azerbaijani diaspora, the scientific elite and the media, as well as students from Moscow and regional educational establishments.
The conference was opened with a minute's silence commemorating the victims. The secretary general of the Youth Forum, Elshad Iskenderov, presented a trailer “The Road to Khojali” by a British and Dutch film crew.  

The head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation branch in Russia, coordinator general of the Youth Forum and chairwoman of the Azerbaijani Youth organization of Russia, Leila Aliyeva, spoke about the programme 'Justice for Khojali'. She said that a priority aim of the campaign was to achieve acknowledgement by the global community of the tragedy that took place on February 25-26, 1992. The Foundation has been organizing events devoted to the Khojali tragedy in over 70 countries of the world. It is due to this campaign that the tragedy has been acknowledged by a number by international forums.


Leila Aliyeva said that she hoped that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be resolved soon by peaceful means, and that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan will be restored.
 
The Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, said that Azerbaijan has failed to raise the problem up to the global community level. He stressed the great importance of achieving recognition of the act of genocide in Khojali.
The chairman of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress Mamed Aliyev,  Milli Məclis deputy Elmira Akhundova, professor Alexander Nesterov and “Justice for Khojali” campaign coordinator Kristina Mojaeva spoke at the conference. VK editor-in-chief  Alexei Vlasov said: "Paying tribute to the victims, we should prevent tragedies in all the post-Soviet countries. In an era in which we contemplate great geopolitical strategies, economic pragmatism, pipelines, oil, gas and their primary importance, nothing is more important than the tears of the mother who lost her two sons that night”.   
At the meeting a book “Confession of an Armenian Intellectual” was also presented by Robert Arakelov , telling about the Khojali tragedy and the role of the Armenian diaspora in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
 
Sergey Rekeda, Eugeny Krishtalev. Exclusive to VK.